Category Archives: Infectious Disease

Aug 21 2012

secrets of the infant immune system revealed for frazzled mothers everywhere

If my Facebook newsfeed is any indication, apparently my generation has gotten to the point of testing the waters of parenthood.  Also evident is that I should have been a pediatrician, because it seems your poor little ones always have to go to the doctor .

Parents of all ages are surely aware of how often infants get sick.  To put it lightly, their immune systems are weak.  Dr. Yasmina Laouar’s lab at the University of Michigan School of Medicine is working to figure out why.  They describe molecular signals that prevent maturation of certain immune cells in infants in a paper published recently in Nature Immunology. Continue reading →

Jul 11 2012

chicken soup to knock out cancer’s soul

Growing up, there was a definite recipe to cure a crappy cold.  Or at least make you feel better.  In my house, it was an excuse for lots of ice cream and soda, but also for chicken soup.  That magical broth never seemed to fail to make you just forget about that fever or sore throat.

It may just be, however, that chicken is a bit more of a magical ingredient than we ever thought before.  There’s some exciting new research out of Texas A&M, and you now that means you’re going to hear about it here.  Dr. James Womack and colleagues published an intriguing article last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describing their discovery of the cancer-killing abilities of a protein naturally found in chickens.

Continue reading →

Mar 5 2011

dangerous bacteria rely on being “green” as well

Skin infections? Nausea, vomiting dehydration? Fever, chills, low blood pressure? Toxic shock syndrome?  Perhaps you should send your thanks to the Staphylococcus family of bacteria.  I’m sure you’re all aware of the dreaded staph infection, which could lead to the aforementioned skin lesions, food poisoning, or a range of other problems.  In fact, staph bugs are responsible for more deaths per year in the United States than HIV/AIDS.  They are highly resilient little bugs that rapidly acquire antibiotic resistance, thus causing tremendous problems in hospitals throughout.

As you no doubt have heard, antibiotic resistance is a major hurdle that the field is working to tackle.  Luckily, we have work being done like this recent study published in PLoS Pathogens that aims to combat this bug head on.  It seems we may have a powerful new antibiotic that targets the bacteria’s ability to….recycle. Continue reading →